Automatic Writing

(Note the embedded commands)

Automatic writing (also known as Dissociated Handwriting) is a process often used in Hypno-analysis to provoke the subconscious into providing a clue as to the cause of the issue being worked on.

It is used particularly when the client (or the therapist) is getting stuck and nothing appears to be happening after several sessions of therapy, and can be quite dramatic in its outcomes.

You need to be firm with the client in ensuring that they do write something down at the end of the session, and although it may appear to be something innocuous or quite unrelated to the issue being worked on, the client's conscious and sub-conscious minds will work on the "clue" given up by the automatic writing between therapy sessions, often loosening up the problem in the mind and allowing the cause to be released in the next session.

There are many ways to solve a problem, and many ways to express what is going on in the mind. Some people write lists, others write out their thoughts, some doodle as a way of clarifying the mind, and as you know much can be gained from analysing handwriting.
Some people find it easier to express inner feelings through poetry or the written word.

Poetic licence allows some people to crystallise their experience of their inner world, where what is written is a reflection of their inner thought processes. There are many words, images and emotions you can choose. You can make your own story. You might write just a word, a line or several lines and as you write you may find yourself expressing your deep innermost thoughts and desires. Remember that when you sign your name you do it without thinking.

So in a few moments/a little while I'm going to ask you to open your eyes and as you sit up to take pen and paper you'll feel a need, an urge, a strong compulsion to write something on the paper. It doesn't matter if you can't consciously understand what you write, but you will write something that has troubled your sub-conscious. You can write the thing that the sub-conscious has been at trouble to keep just below the surface of your thoughts. You will write it down and release it - allowing your hand to write it automatically without thinking. Even if you want to think you have written something else you can, but what you will write will connect to the thing that has troubled your sub-conscious. A word, a phrase, a sentence, several lines.

Either surface client from trance and pass them the paper or wait until the end of the hypnosis session and ask them to write something. Say little to them, be firm and insist they write something. Most will initially say they do not know what to write - quietly gesture for them to write something and give them time. Most will write something that usually connects in some way to the cause or the issue you are working on.